Are you afraid of the light?

Fancy a game of hide and seek? Want to play it in the dark? Well have I got the game for you. It’s called Das Waldschattenspiel, or Shadows in the Woods if you prefer.

This game was actually recommended to my daughter by a family friend after she regaled them with her exploits of completely annihilating her poor dad at various games. So, when she got home she pestered me until I eventually succumbed to the pouting lip and puppy dog eyes and bought her the game. Now having played it I’m so glad she bugged me about it.

It’s a simple game for 2-8 players and is basically hide and seek. Yes I know it doesn’t sound like a great concept for a board game, but when you consider its played in the dark with a board covered in wooden trees and you push a candle around the board doesn’t that make you the least bit intrigued?

Let me explain a bit more. As a dwarf player you try to get all the dwarfs together round a tree to do whatever it is dwarfs do around trees in the dark.

The only thing stopping them is they don’t like the light. In fact if the light touches them they are frozen to the spot until a friend comes over to them and breaks the spell. The movement for the candle is dictated by the roll of a die, a path they must follow and an inability to move backwards. The Dwarfs, on the other hand, can move freely around the board as long as they stay in the shadows.

To add an extra element, the candle player is not allowed to leave their seat and closes their eyes while the dwarfs make their move. The latter can prove a bit redundant when the dwarfs are hiding at the candle players’ end.

Considering it’s quite cheap, £18-£20, I was surprised at how well put together it is. All the pieces including the jigsaw like board are made from wood and although a bit roughly cut look good. You even get a handy push rod to move the candle around the board with.

They also supply some pre cut and shaped pieces of felt to glue round the top of the dwarf pieces to give them little hats if you fancy that sort of thing. Yes I know it’s not necessary to put them on, but it does make them look good and my daughter had fun making them.